Tangled Webs
by WitchMagpie
Summary: On break planning an Oct wedding. Will resume Nov07.Oh what tangled webs we weave when first we practice to deceive. Has cunning Sohma Shigure bitten off more than he can chew when he sets out to seduce the clever and reserved Hanajima Saki?


**AN: After reading Gwen the Kakashi Obsessed's _Gothic Blackberries_ I was inspired to write a Shigure/Saki** **fic. It's not a pairing I feel particularly drawn to normally in terms of romantic satisfaction, but it has all the potential for manipulation, game playing and ulterior motives: three things that are terribly fun to write as an author! I do not own Fruits Basket. If I did, I would be Japanese and not some white chick in the USA.**

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He watched her as she sat in the living room, talking with Tohru and the Yankee. She sat perched lightly on the zabuton cushion alongside the kotatsu, a small earthenware cup in one hand, smiling slightly and sipping on her tea as she listened to Tohru speak. He liked the way her smile just barely eased the corners of her mouth into a curve; only someone acquainted with her mannerisms would see the amusement that imperceptibly shifted her face from its customarily expressionless visage to one of warmth and good humor.

Sohma Shigure liked to think he was acquainted with Hanajima Saki. Not that they shared confidences on a regular basis; as a matter of fact, the last thing he recalled Saki saying to him was something along the lines of "Could you please pass me the soy sauce?" But he did make a point of observing her when she came to visit Tohru, which was fairly often.

Saki intrigued him. She reminded him of a nightshade plant; beautiful, violet colored blossoms, vivid yellow pistil, and scarlet berries, tempting to taste and touch, but deadly in their nectar. He had never met someone he felt more uncomfortable around. He was almost certain that she knew exactly what he was thinking most of the time.

He remembered one day when he caught a glimpse of Tohru's panties, accidentally of course, as she bent over to pick up a basket of laundry. He was absolutely certain that he had not given any indication of having seen anything untoward, and yet when he walked out into the living room, he saw Saki looking at him, her expressionless gaze somehow radiating a poisonous and deadly fury that detailed for him in no uncertain terms exactly how he would die if he were ever to peek at Tohru's panties again. How she knew he could not explain; but that she did somehow know was certain.

She was like a watchdog, zealously guarding Tohru from the perverts and sex fiends of the world; and yet she also assiduously read his ero-seinin novel _Summer-Colored Sigh_ and asked him about possible sequels every time she saw him. Clearly there was more to Saki than was readily apparent, and never one to shun a mystery, Shigure found himself wanting to learn more about this beautiful and potentially deadly blossom.

So he spent much of the time when she came to visit Tohru, hanging around the girls in the kitchen , ostensibly to eat Tohru's fabulous cooking and gawk at the high school girls, observing Saki. With his author's eye for detail, he noticed little things about her that others did not: the way her eyes became flat and hard in their expression when she was angry, the sparkle that lit up in them when she was amused, the faint, dry humor that underlay her tone when she spoke in jest. To others, Saki might appear to be emotionless or lacking in a variety of expressions, but to Shigure, she was the very definition of subtle nuance. He found himself wanting to engage her in repartee, just to witness her masterful use of understatement and inference. What the Yankee could achieve with overt threats of violence, Saki could deliver with a single sidelong glance of her eyes or raised eyebrow.

He knew she was aware of the way he watched her. He suspected she knew why too. And she intrigued him in a way no other woman could; with her, there was so much potential for game playing, for verbal sparring, for manipulation. He practically hugged himself with glee when he imagined all the possibilities for the sort of scheming and mental maneuvering that interaction with her could provide. She was potentially more than a worthy opponent, and it aroused him in previously unimagined ways to think of matching wits with her. To successfully seduce a woman like Saki would take every drop of cunning, every ounce of mental acuity that he was capable of mustering.

But first he had to formulate a plan; exactly how would he go about seducing someone who could see through his every deception? Clearly his motives were transparent to her, so the trick would be to convince himself of the sincerity of his actions. He suspected that it was his lack of sincerity that was giving him away; if he himself believed his spin, it would be that much easier to convince her.

But how to go about it? The best lies contain at their core a seed of truth; he would have to settle upon a core or fundamental belief he held regarding Saki and use it as the basis from which he constructed his web of deceit.

But it would also have to be something that was believable in a romantic context. Judging by what he had observed in Saki, he suspected that letting her believe she was in control of the situation with a lover would most arouse feelings in her. With her feelings of superiority over most people, she probably had latent sadomasochistic tendencies, secretly longing to be able to dominate someone and make them do as she willed. So he would have to convince her that he was madly and passionately in love with her, helpless to resist her every demand, in order to engage her emotions and her interest.

Most likely she would first feel amused, and then if she was at all the dominatrix he suspected she was, she would feel drawn to tease him and see how far she could push him and his feelings for her. And somewhere along the line, amusement would turn to desire, and she would become addicted to the thrill and the charge she got from dominating him. Then he would have her; the tables would be turned and he would be in control. That shouldn't be too terribly difficult to accomplish. The kernel of truth he would use to construct his ruse would be his genuine feelings of lust and attraction for her.

While lust cannot be confused with love, it can be disguised to appear as though it were love by embellishing it with a heaping dose of admiration. It would be no lie for him to wax passionate to her about her incredible beauty and sharpness of wit. The wit would be the key, he thought to himself. She could easily dismiss my admiration of her features and body as lust; but my reverence for her mind is genuine and should convince her of the sincerity of my feelings for her.

He would have to tread carefully; caution was the key with this one. She could spot a fraud from a mile away, so he would have to take baby steps with her, making it seem that these feelings were slowly developing for her. He rubbed his hands together with maniacal glee. He could hardly stand how excited he was just plotting and planning this seduction; he suspected the sex itself might be anticlimactic in comparison to the build up. But he was going to have to tone his enthusiasm down. He was likely to blow his cover before he even got started if she saw him acting like this.

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He was plotting something, she was sure of it. She was used to him staring at her, but something had shifted; there seemed to be a change in his intent. Whereas before Shigure had contented himself in only watching her, she now sensed something more predatory in his intent. She let the feeling drift into her consciousness, enveloping it and turning it over and around in her head, trying to get a better intuitive sense of what the ero-seinin novelist was plotting, but his previously transparent motives felt more guarded now. She felt some mild surprise at that. The pervert was actually capable of guarding his thoughts? Perhaps there was more to him than she had given him credit for.

Clearly he was planning something in regards to her; the predator waves he was emitting betrayed that much to her. But what exactly was he planning to do? She permitted herself to look over at Shigure where he stood leaning against the door frame listening to Tohru speak. He appeared to be deep in thought and not actually attending to what Tohru said. He felt her eyes upon him and he shifted his glance to meet her eyes. Dark, coffee colored eyes locked in gaze with her own unblinking, ebony orbs for a moment, and then he quickly looked down, a little color rising in his cheeks.

She sat for a moment trying to interpret what had just occurred, distracted from her curiosity into his intent. Was Shigure actually blushing? She stared at him for a moment, trying to determine if there was any external cause such as heat that could be making his cheeks flush. Feeling the intensity of her gaze, he looked up again and seeing her attention was still on him, he looked away quickly, the flush deepening.

Amusement bubbled up inside of her, all questions regarding his intent forgotten in this new revelation. Sohma Shigure was blushing because she had caught him staring at her. Did he have feelings for her? She reached out with her denpa waves and attempted to ascertain the nature of his feelings for her. She sensed a great deal of lust, some admiration and no small amount of nervousness, all in relation to his feelings towards her. Could Shigure be nurturing a small crush on her?

This could be fun. He met her eyes again, looking at her from beneath his long lashes and she noticed for the first time that the blush of embarrassment he now sported suited him, accentuating his high cheekbones and dark brown eyes. Her amusement deepened as he fled the room under her prolonged stare, shutting himself into his office. She suspected she had found a new source of entertainment to pass the time while Uo and Tohru played Daihinmin.

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Shigure caught Saki's gaze again, and then cast his eyes down, gazing at her from beneath his long eyelashes bashfully before looking away blushing. He felt Saki's stare as he looked down at his hands; he waited for just a moment, and then he looked up to see if she was still watching him. Meeting her gaze again, he felt his blush deepen and he looked away quickly before hurrying out of the room and shutting himself in his study.

Once behind the closed door, he relaxed and silently congratulated himself on an Academy Award winning performance; even he had been convinced by his bashful gaze and blushing cheeks. He had seen the amusement in her eyes when she saw him blushing, so he knew his charade had not gone unappreciated. But even better, he could tell from her amusement that she had been laughing at him; normally his ego would sting from the humiliation of being laughed at, but in this case it boded well. It potentially meant that she had fallen for his ruse and thought that he was developing feelings for her; which in turn meant that she was playing right into his hands.

Of course, this was just the opening gambit in this game he was orchestrating between them. Whether or not he could continue to maintain the illusion of his infatuation remained to be seen. He would have to caution himself against getting too over-confident. His present success could be predicated largely upon the element of surprise; Saki had not been anticipating him crushing on her. She probably hadn't thought to question it since it was so unexpected and novel. Any future interactions would have to be governed with restraint and discretion, as by then she would have had time to ruminate on the subject and develop whatever questions or suspicions she might have about the situation.

Shigure allowed a slow, smug smile to creep across his lips and he had to restrain himself from doing a happy dance around the office. Sometimes he was so cunning he even amazed himself. If he managed to pull this little caper off, he would have to immortalize it in one of his novels. He was really going to enjoy adding Saki as the crown jewel to his portfolio of conquests. The challenge that she represented to him was irresistible and painfully arousing. To possess the heart of and control an ice queen like her was the realization of dream for him; it was the highest ambition a master manipulator like himself could aspire to. Not even simultaneously seducing and bedding Ren and Akito, and hiding the fact that he was doing so from the both of them, could compare to outwitting and bedding the most intuitive and reserved woman he had ever met.

Chuckling to himself, he sat down at his desk and began revising the rough draft of his latest novel, _Midnight Masquerades_, which was, oddly enough, all about a ruggedly handsome and intrepid young man who finds himself torn between the erotic attentions of a feuding mother and daughter. Sometimes art imitates life.

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AN: Teehee! Writing a manipulative and sly Shigure is fun! Review and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading! Magpie**


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